


Memories of Forgotten Timelines

by OniDoodle



Series: My LU Fanfics [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I'm also bad at summaries apparantly, Memories, POV First Person, Trauma, Whump I think?, i don't know how to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23956864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OniDoodle/pseuds/OniDoodle
Summary: Wild is having strange dreams. Normally this isn't a problem, but these ones are especially weird. It's almost as if they aren't his to begin with..AKA: I decided to indulge in a headcanon that I've had for a really long time by writing my first fanfic.Special thanks to Cy for proofreading my story. You're an awesome person.
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe), Time & Wild (Linked Universe), Twilight & Wild (Linked Universe)
Series: My LU Fanfics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727134
Comments: 11
Kudos: 125





	1. Chapter 1

_ I was wandering through an ancient wooden tunnel that was covered in a thick layer of moss and cobwebs. Faint fairylight illuminated rough-hewn passageways that made it look like a giant insect had simply chewed its way through the walls. _

**_Wait, fairylight?_ **

_ I resurfaced for a moment and realized that there was a fairy hovering nearby my shoulder, flitting around my head nervously. _

**_What the-_ **

_ ‘Link? Are you all right?’ _

_ I gripped my sword a bit more tightly. “I’m fine, Navi. Nothing’s wrong.” _

**_Odd. Since when was my voice this high?_ **

_ “I’m just getting a little jumpy, that’s all.” _

_ The fairy huffed indignantly.  _

_ “You know that if we’re gonna be partners from now on, right?” _

_ I nodded, keeping my focus on the path ahead.  _

_ “That means,” she continued, “That you’ve gotta be able to trust me if you want to help save the Great Deku Tree from this curse that he mentioned before.” _

_ I sighed loudly. “I know, Navi, it’s just…” _

_ “What? What is it, Link?” _

_ “Saria told me that normally when a fairy is bonded to a Kokiri, it’s because the fairy chose to become partners with them. But… you were chosen to be my partner by the Deku Tree instead.” _

_ “Yeah, so?” Navi asked impatiently as she flew alongside me. _

_ “Does… does that mean I’m not a true Kokiri?” _

_ It was as if time itself had stopped in that short moment of silence. _

_ Even Navi froze up, halting midflight as she looked down at me with an expression of utter shock on her face. _

_ “What? No! Of course you’re a Kokiri! Why else would the Great Deku Tree send you out on such an important mission?”  _

_ “I don’t know, maybe it was because he couldn’t trust that idiot Mido to do it!” I snarled with disgust, spitting out the words like they were rotten fruit.  _

_ “What!? Since when did Mido have anything to do with-” _

_ “You don’t even care about me, do you? You’re only accompanying me so that I-” _

_ “LINK, LOOK OUT!” _

_ A dark shadow descended from overhead, landing on top of me with a painful crash. I screamed and scrambled out from under the massive beast, and in that instant, I could just make out a demon’s sharp claws and baleful eye staring out at me from the darkness of the chamber. The monster roared in manic glee and lunged straight for me, its claws raised high above its head. The bony appendages crashed down on top of me, and I was plunged into darkness. _

***

I woke with a start, gasping for air as I desperately looked around for the monster that was about to attack and rip me apart with its claws. 

The clearing was quiet, barring the sounds of wildlife and the gentle snores coming from my sleeping companions. Sky was bundled up in his sailcloth, mumbling softly as he slept. Wind was pressed up against the Old Man’s side, his head lying against his chest as if he was a pillow. Twilight was sitting on a nearby log, stirring the remains of the fire. 

_ ‘It wasn’t real,’  _ I reminded himself.  _ ‘It was just a dream. Nothing’s going to attack you. You’re going to be fine.’ _

“You alright, Cub?”

I almost jumped out of my skin at the sudden noise. Twilight was glancing over at me, a look of concern etched across his face. 

_ Crap. _

I really didn’t want to talk about what I just saw. It was bad enough that I could actually remember what happened this time. 

“I’m fine, Twilight. Nothing’s wrong.”

“Is that so?” Twilight looked unconvinced. “Come on, Wild. I know something’s bothering you.”

“What gave it away?” 

“Well, it’s not every day that your friend wakes up in the middle of the night looking like they’ve seen a ghost.” He motioned for me to come over. I obliged, plopping myself next to him on the log. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, not really. There’s isn’t really much to talk about anyway.”

“Was it another nightmare?”

“Yeah, it was another one.” 

“Can’t remember what happened again, can you?”

“Actually, I can remember some of it,” I said. “I just don’t want to talk about what happened in it.”

“Oh.” His eyes dropped down to his lap. “Was it the one where… you know…” He motioned towards the scars covering my left side. 

“You mean the one where I died?”

Twilight flinched at how bluntly I said it. “Yeah, that one.”

I sighed. “No, it wasn’t that one. To be honest, I’m not sure that it actually  _ was  _ one of my memories at all. It felt more like a bad dream to me than anything else. All I can really remember is claws and an eye that glowed with hatred.” I laughed ruefully. “Funny how so many things can cause us so much fear, isn’t it?” 

“You have an odd definition of funny, Wild.”

“My guess is that it comes with being Farore’s champion. I mean, Goddesses, have you seen how cynical the Old Man can get?”

Twilight smiled a bit.“Well, we don’t call him ‘Old Man’ for nothing.”

We continued on like this for several hours. The moon was high above us when Twilight got up from where he sat. 

“I gotta wake Warriors for his watch. You should get some sleep.”

“Actually, I can take his watch,” I said. “It’s not like I’ll be able to get much sleep anyway. 

“No. You need your rest. I’ll wake up Warriors. You are going to sleep.” His voice was firm as he gave me his best ‘disappointed’ look. It wasn’t that great, but I got the point.

“Okay, fine.” I headed back over to my bedroll and laid back down, facing away from the fire. 

In the background, I could hear Warriors getting roused, mumbling curses as he made towards the fire.

“I’m going on a walk. I’ll be back before dawn.” 

Warriors muttered out a halfhearted “M’kay” at the statement.

Twilight strode off into the forest until he was out of earshot from the group. Several minutes later, he approached in his wolf form and had plopped down beside me. I curled up beside the wolf and began to pet him as he kept his silent vigil. By the time I had woken up again, the sun was shining through the leafy bowers of the trees, and Twilight was gently shaking me. 

“Rise and shine, Cub. We’ve got a long way to go.” 


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This took a long time, people. I blame the need to be a responsible human being for this chapter being late.  
> I still had fun writing it, though.  
> Please enjoy.

_Click._

_Click._

_Click._

_Click._

_The sound of gears and cogs reverberated through the air as I walked through the labyrinth of stone, bouncing off the walls as I passed by the moss-covered remnants of broken and shattered machinery._

_At the end of the hallway, the room opened up into a large antechamber that resounded with the rhythmic beat of clockwork, as if it was the source of the noise that echoed throughout the entire building. Cautiously, I crept over to a set of wooden doors the opposite wall from where I came from, carefully reaching for the brass handle so that I wouldn’t make any noise._

_A dark chuckle rang out from behind me, freezing me in my tracks._

_“You have met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?”_

_I whirled around, bracing myself for an attack, my hand instinctively reaching for a sword that wasn’t there. When I had finally processed the appearance of the man in front of me, I didn’t feel any more reassured by his presence._

_The man wore the flowing blue and purple robes of nobility, but they looked old and worn, as if they had seen the rigors and stresses of the open road. The masks adorning his bag clattered and banged against each other as he moved, like an overenthusiastic windchime. The most disturbing thing about him, however, was the way he kept on smiling at me. It just seemed a little… off, his grin a little too wide, the expression a little too cheerful, as if his good mood was merely a facade, a mask to be put on and taken off whenever he pleased._

_“My name is Hanso. I make a business out of finding rare and strange masks. And you are…?_

_‘Why are you here.’ My hands moved in a practiced motion, a sentence formed completely without the use of spoken words. I had vowed not to speak until I found my fairy, and I wasn’t about to break that promise now._

_The man’s smile faltered momentarily. “Ah. Not one for idle chit-chat, I see. Well, I can work with that, I can work with that.” He seemed to consider something for a moment, then spoke again. “A short while ago, an incredibly rare and powerful mask was stolen from me. It is of the utmost importance that I get it back as soon as possible.” His expression shifted slightly, to one of curiosity and blamelessness. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but I have been following you for quite some time…”_

**_By the goddesses, old man, there’s no way to say that_ ** **without** **_sounding like a creep-_ **

_“... and I recall that you had something precious that was stolen from you as well, young man.”_

_I narrowed my eyes. He knew far more about me than he had let on, and this act he was putting on was beginning to try my patience. ‘What are you trying to play at, old man?’_

_He gave me a condescending look. “Oh, come now. I try to make a deal, and you accuse me of having a motive to harm you? Honestly, children these days have no respect for their elders.”_

_When all he got was a glare in response, he continued on. “Anyway, I was about to ask you a favor before you so rudely interrupted me.” He fixed me with a look that made all the words dry up in my head. “If you would kindly go and retrieve my mask and your precious item, I will show you a way that you can return to your proper form.”_

_I jerked, then hurriedly began to sign. ‘How did you-’_

_“However, I am a very busy man, and I will need to leave this place in three days’ time. If you can return my mask within that period, then I will teach you how to return to your proper form.”_

**_Three days? There’s no way that I can complete that within three-_ **

_“Well, best be off with you! I have every bit of confidence in you that you will be able to succeed!”_

_I was shooed out the door by the man, and just before he closed it, he shouted one last thing. “Remember to believe in your strengths, young man! Remember to believe!_

_The door slammed shut behind me, and I was on my own, in an unfamiliar city full of faces that I could swear that I had seen before._

***

“-ld? Wild?”

I snapped back to consciousness, looking about for the cobbled streets that I had been standing on only a few moments ago. 

Wind was waving his hand in front of my face, a look of concern etched all over his face. “Are you okay Wild? Your face went all blank and you weren’t responding to any of us and I was so worried-”

“It’s alright Wind.” I smiled reassuringly. “I just zoned out for a moment there. It happens all the time.”

“Uh, Wild?” Legend was on the other side of camp, sorting through a mountain of equipment and provisions (by Din he had a lot of stuff). “You might wanna focus on not screwing up instead of talking to Wind for a moment? I don’t know about you, but I don’t my food getting burnt to a crisp like you’re doing right now.”

“Ah, crap.” I hurriedly began stirring the contents of the pot in an effort to keep the food from burning. When I looked down, I noticed that the onions were a bit more brown than I had intended them to be. _Don’t get mad,_ I reminded myself. _I can work with this._ I was the cook, after all, maybe I could use some herbs to highlight the flavor and then add some pumpkin and other vegetables to make an alright stew…

Smiling, I grabbed my slate and pulled out a fortified gourd and some carrots, and began to work on cutting up the vegetables as I added them to the pot. 

When I was finished, I called everyone over, and passed out the steaming bowls with a piece of bread to go along with the soup. 

I did sneak a little something extra into Warrior’s dish before I passed it to him, though. 

Oh, the look on the captain’s face was _priceless._

“The hell did you put in my food, Wild!?” He was fuming, his face turning beet red as he spluttered indignantly. I smiled and pulled a small bottle out of my bag.

“You see this?” 

Warriors snatched the bottle out of my hand and examined it closely. “Yeah, what is it?”

“That is _Goron Spice._ ”

“Oh, you bloody-”

His angry cries were drowned out by my triumphant cackling at his expense. When I had finally gotten over myself, I pointed my ladle at him and paired it with a dirty look. 

“That was a warning.” 

Warriors looked bewildered as he foundered for a response. “A warning? A warning for what?”

_“Never go through my stuff again, you asshole.”_

*** 

  


That night, I stared up at the leafy bauers of the forest, listening to the sounds of crickets and cicadas light up the forest floor. As my mind wandered, I pulled out my journal and started to record the day’s events for future events to show Zelda when I got back from my journey. When I started to write about what happened when I was cooking, however, I stopped, my quill hovering just above where I was about to write. It had to be a dream, it was far too bizarre to be a memory. But the more I thought about the dream, the more vividly I could recall it, rather than the other way around. I could recall the sound of a ticking clock, the way the man moved, and the unnerving smile that he always wore. 

Sighing in frustration, I closed the book and set down my supplies. It was just a dream, nothing more than that. I was looking into it too much. I was just having a bad day.

However, as I shoved the book back into my bag with my other things, a quiet voice interrupted my constant stream of thoughts. 

_But was it something more?_

I squashed the thought before it could take up any more of my attention. 

But that doubt was still there, niggling at the edge of my thoughts. And it was only going to gain more ground from that day onward.


End file.
